Alf van Rensburg is a Senior Electrical Engineer with extensive experience in electrical power systems, mining infrastructure, heavy industry, automation, operational technology, asset reliability and project delivery.
His career spans mining, ports, smelting, steelmaking, mineral processing, precious-metals recovery, transportation infrastructure and standalone renewable power systems. He has worked in operating plants, engineering consultancies and systems-integration environments across Australia, South Africa and the United States.
Alf approaches engineering from first principles and applies a systems view to the interaction between electrical infrastructure, plant equipment, instrumentation, control systems, operations, maintenance and business objectives. His focus is the delivery of safe, reliable, maintainable and practical engineering solutions.
Current Position
DRA Global
Senior Engineer – Electrical | September 2026–Present | Perth, Western Australia
Alf develops and implements electrical systems for mining and mineral-processing projects. His responsibilities include:
- detailed design of power distribution, lighting, communications, instrumentation and control systems;
- electrical load calculations, equipment selection, system coordination and protection assessment;
- design verification and technical review;
- preparation of calculations, reports, specifications and engineering documentation;
- coordination with project stakeholders and other engineering disciplines;
- compliance with applicable legislation, standards, client requirements and safe-design principles; and
- management of engineering quality, schedules and budgets.
Recent Experience
GTE Group
Senior Electrical Engineer | February 2024–September 2026 | Perth, Western Australia
Provided senior electrical engineering design, implementation and commissioning support for mining, port infrastructure, transport, utilities, renewable-energy and industrial clients.
Responsibilities included power-system studies, equipment specification and selection, power-distribution layouts, earthing and lightning-protection design, lighting, LV substation design, schematics, wiring design, site investigations, design reviews, scopes of work, commissioning documentation, options assessments, RFQ packages and project estimates.
Selected projects included:
- electrical design and protection coordination for scalable photovoltaic, battery energy storage and utility-grade standalone power systems;
- VSD and MCC replacement strategies for stackers, conveyors and barge-loader long-travel systems at Cape Preston;
- protection-relay configuration and installation and commissioning procedures for transformer, HV and LV switchgear, protection-coordination and arc-flash systems at BHP Finucane Inner Harbour;
- design of a fail-safe, hard-wired emergency local-control system for recovery of a shiploader boom during control-system faults;
- power-supply, cable-sizing and cable-routing design for 24 Public Transport Authority digital radio sites; and
- power-quality, maximum-demand, power-factor-correction, hazardous-area, MV VSD obsolescence and electrical-protection compliance assessments.
Glencore Mount Isa Mines
Senior Electrical Engineer | April 2021–December 2023 | Mount Isa, Queensland
Provided electrical engineering, project-management and maintenance support for HV and LV distribution, hoisting and winding, fixed plant and operational technology across the Enterprise, X41, Black Star and Black Rock mining operations.
Managed a team of six electrical engineers and two technicians and coordinated strategic and tactical planning for underground electrical infrastructure.
A major achievement was the replacement of a 13 MW, 33/11 kV underground transformer at Enterprise mine while simultaneously repairing the tap changers of two associated 10 MW transformers. The work was completed over 14 days without interrupting mining operations.
Other work included:
- construction and relocation of underground substations;
- replacement of MCCs, HV switchboards and transformers;
- retrofilling transformers from mineral oil to MIDEL 7131;
- refurbishment of HV motors, starters and switchgear;
- development and modification of vacuum circuit breakers to replace obsolete oil circuit breakers;
- ventilation, dewatering, conveying, crushing, hoisting and winding systems;
- hoisting-system recommissioning and functional-safety verification;
- strategic management of obsolete electrical and control-system assets; and
- upgrade of the site-wide AVEVA SCADA system and implementation of high-performance graphics.
Nyrstar Port Pirie
Senior Electrical Reliability Engineer | May 2018–April 2021 | Port Pirie, South Australia
Provided site-wide electrical engineering, power-distribution, asset-reliability and maintenance support for the lead smelter and associated process facilities.
Notable achievements included:
- replacement of an obsolete DC drive and motor on a 210 m³/s fume fan with a 1,000 kW AC drive and motor, completed one week ahead of schedule and under budget;
- replacement of two obsolete 500 kW DC fume-fan drives with ABB DCS880 drives with minimal interruption to operations; and
- reinstatement of a 2 MVAr power-factor-correction system, improving power factor from approximately 0.82 to 0.99.
Responsibilities included HV and LV switchgear projects, load and arc-flash studies, network and transformer condition management, rotating-equipment monitoring, high-voltage switching assurance, engineering standards, change control, risk assessment, operational readiness, equipment criticality assessment, failure analysis and development of reliability improvements.
BASF Corporation
Instrumentation and Electrical Controls Engineer | January 2016–March 2018 | Seneca, South Carolina, USA
Provided engineering and maintenance support for electrical controls, instrumentation, automation, process control and manufacturing information systems at a precious-metals recycling facility.
Managed a multi-year migration from Modicon PLCs and Wonderware HMI to an integrated architecture comprising approximately 40 Allen-Bradley PLCs with centralised Rockwell FactoryTalk HMI.
Designed and implemented manufacturing information systems supporting production reporting, Asset Effectiveness and Overall Equipment Effectiveness measurement. Other work included electrical load monitoring, maintenance-performance reporting and systematic upgrading of obsolete instrumentation and control equipment.
Earlier Career
Alf’s earlier employment included senior engineering, automation, systems-integration, consulting, project-management and project-controls roles with:
- Lycopodium Minerals and the Pilbara EPCM joint venture, Australia;
- Mondial IT Solutions, South Africa;
- Hatch Africa, South Africa;
- Kumba Resources, now Exxaro Resources;
- Saldanha Steel, now ArcelorMittal Saldanha Works; and
- ISCOR Pretoria Works, now part of ArcelorMittal.
This work included electric arc furnace automation, continuous-caster breakout prevention, heavy-minerals furnace protection, manufacturing execution and information systems, SAP integration, industrial control-system modernisation, EPCM project controls and operational-management systems.
Technical Capabilities
- HV and LV electrical distribution
- Substations, transformers and switchgear
- Protection systems and coordination
- Motor control centres and variable-speed drives
- Power-system, load and arc-flash studies
- Earthing, lightning protection and cable sizing
- Mining fixed plant, conveying, crushing, ventilation and dewatering
- Hoisting and winding systems
- Instrumentation, PLC, SCADA and process control
- Operational technology and industrial communications
- Manufacturing information and execution systems
- Solar photovoltaic and battery energy storage systems
- Equipment obsolescence and replacement planning
- Asset management, reliability and root-cause analysis
- Safety in design, change control and risk assessment
- Engineering design reviews and technical assurance
- EPCM project delivery, estimating and commissioning
- Operational readiness and engineering handover
- Vendor, contractor and stakeholder management
- Engineering team leadership and mentoring
Qualifications
Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering
University of Pretoria, 1987
Management Development Programme
University of South Africa Graduate School of Business Leadership, 1996
PRINCE2 Practitioner
ALC Training, 2009
Professional Affiliations
- Member of Engineers Australia
- Member of the Asset Management Council
- Member of the Australian Cost Engineering Society
- Member of the International Society of Automation
Technical Publication
A.J. Jansen van Rensburg and C.E. Jansen van Rensburg, Industrial Implementation of a Fundamental Model for Dynamic Control of an Electrical Arc Furnace, SAIMM and SACAC Control Colloquium, Johannesburg, South Africa, 21 April 2006.
Languages
- English
- Afrikaans